5G4 Transactions of the 



of large, irregular branching legs. The parasite I have observed is a 

 regular oval in form, in outline not unlike the body of a wood-tick, white 

 and semi-translucent like a particle of spermacelti or wax, and having 

 three or four (I forget which, for it is some years since 1 have had any 

 scab) pairs of legs attached symmetrically to the anterior portion of the 

 body. The legs are reddish-brown in color. 



Almost anything that is destructive to insect life will cure scab if 

 applied in liquid form and hot— say at about the temperature that the 

 hand can bear comfortably; but no mixture, however poisonous, can 

 effect a cure with a single application. It should be applied about three 

 times, and at intervals of say ten days. Having a scabby sheep on hand, 

 we must assume that the parasites infesting it are existing in every 

 stage of their brief career. There are those which have just emerged 

 from the skin with their young, those which have just burrowed into 

 the skin to bring forth their young ten or twelve days hence, those 

 which have been buried five or six days, above whom the pustule has 

 formed, and yet others at every stage between the two extremes of their 

 career. jSow, 3'ou can break the pustules (or most of them), and reach 

 with your poison the occupants of these, and the free acari that may 

 happen to be on the outside of the skin, but you will not reach all of those 

 that have just retired within it. You ma} T poison the wool so that were 

 these to emerge the next da}- it might be they would also perish. But 

 a few da} T s' growth of wool must be ample for the preservation of such 

 microscopic life. "Within a fortnight, then, from the first application 

 of your wash, a second generation of acari has matured and embarked 

 upon its mission of "increase and multiplication." These considera- 

 tions make it easy to understand why a second and third application of 

 the remedy, at intervals of about ten days, are requisite to insure the 

 cure and eradication of the scab. 



Soon after shearing is the best time to perform any of the operations 

 hereafter described; the wool is then short, it takes less liquid to satu- 

 rate, and you have a better chance to "take in the situation " generally. 



SPOTTING SHEEP. 



"Spotting" sheep consists in placing the sheep's head into some 

 stationary yoke and doctoring such spots on the sheep as can be dis- 

 covered to be affected by the scab. The yoke may be made of a forked 

 limb of a tree; or, take four-by-four scantling and spike on two-by-four 

 pieces with holes bored through the same; have a peg or bolt that can 

 be inserted freely into these holes so as to keep the sheep from disen- 

 gaging his neck or head from the yoke after he has been placed in posi- 

 tion. The yoke is to be set firmly into the ground or into the floor of 

 the place where the work is to be done. Next inspect the sheep for 

 scab thoroughl}', and with a swab dipped into the " wash," rub all 

 places that show trace of scab or even look suspicious — for it is easy to 

 overlook a patch the size of one's hand if the operator be not up to his 

 work. A sheep whose fleece is yet entire ma}' be quite scabby, and 

 need onl}' a few weeks to lose large patches of wool, yet to the casual 

 observer there may be nothing wrong. These places in the wool are 

 lighter colored than the balance of the fleece, and have a dried up, 

 white appearance, that one may soon learn to detect as readily as he 

 would were the wool off and an uglj* sore formed. Either in spotting or 

 dipping sheep I would see that all bad places that are sore or "scabby," 

 as the term would imply, should get an extra allowance of doctoring. 



